After Dithering For Six Years ... Was It All A Hoax To Form A New Government Agency? Here It Comes: The Federal Fracking Permitting Agency (FFPA)

President Obama, at this linked Argus Media story which appears not to be a hoax:

The Obama administration plans to take steps to streamline federal permitting of infrastructure projects, including renewable energy generation, electricity transmission and pipelines. [Some murmuring in the audience. The Tea Party is on the edge of its collective seat.]

The plan announced yesterday by President Barack Obama calls for better coordination among agencies, making it easier for the public to track permit reviews and an interagency "permitting center" to help implement the reforms at executive branch agencies. [LOL]

"We are cutting bureaucratic red tape that stalls good projects from breaking ground," Obama said. [The speech was momentarily interrupted by fifteen minutes of laughter.]

The plan calls for 15 specific reforms to meet overall goals for speeding up reviews and improving transparency, such as developing coordinated project schedules, posting more projects to an online "dashboard," and improving project planning and site selection early in the process. [Some squirming among the Sierra Club who had hoped for 17 specific reforms. The Native American Senator from Massachusetts is checking her notes.]

Environmentalists said the plan will help speed permitting of "worthy projects" that will increase US use of renewable energy. [NY Times reporter is mouthing: "what worthy projects?"]

I'm not exactly sure what renewable energy - wind or solar -- uses pipelines.  LOL.

I'm not sure why anyone would even consider "unworthy" projects.

It will take at least two months for each agency director to review fracking permits, leading to a two-year frack permitting process. Regular readers remember the BLM permitting process when the boom first began; it was "a two-year process" to get a permit in Fort Berthold until North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan stepped in and got that "fixed." Now, as far as I know, permits on Fort Berthold are approved in as timely a matter as non-BLM state permits. Don't quote me on that.

By the way, the dashboard concept is interesting: the first major operating system to use a desktop "dashboard" was Apple Inc. Google "dashboard desktop" and the first hits are all Apple.

*********************************

Global Warming or Perpetual Winter?

IceAgeNow is reporting:

Rockford, IL, had never had accumulating snow after May 2nd … until this year… two weeks past the latest date. Records since 1905.

It’s also the longest snow season in 109 years in Rockford … started October 22 and most likely ended May 16th.

It has snowed in the U.S for 9 straight months now since the rare September snowfall in Wyoming.

This might be a good year for the Kennedy clan in Massachusetts to visit Illinois or Wyoming; it might be the last year their children see snow. LOL.